Master the 'strongest' build in Destiny's history like no one else (Berserker Stronghold Guide)

I did not initially plan on doing a build video until slightly into the season, this video originally was planned to go over the changes down to sword guard and how it changed the damage resistance. While halfway through the writing, I expanded a lot on the ideas and thought it could be a build guide with just a little more information, which obviously is what I did.

There is not much emphasis on the subclass, mods, and weapons. As I mentioned in the video, you should not put too much focus on those; as you gain more experience with the game, they will come naturally and you can quickly understand how they work. If you've never played with Berserker or even Titan in general, then yeah, spend some time and familiarize yourself with it. But if you have, getting to know the playstyle will be more important, especially with how close-range playstyles are far more dangerous in Master and Grandmaster content.

I also should've gone a little further when explaining the different ways of classifying damage resistance, mainly why I did what I did. The reason why #3 and #4 are important and only consist of those resist values is because #3 will be the resistance you have that doesn't stop you from engaging enemies and #4 did not include other resists because resists that are either always active or can be activated on demand generally are what the only ones you can take advantage of when the situation gets sticky.

00:00 - Damage Resistance at Face Value
01:01 - Resistance Categories
02:16 - Deeper Look at Damage Resistance
03:23 - 4 Ways to Classify Damage Resistance
05:15 - Whisper of Chains
05:40 - Stronghold + Sword Builds
06:40 - Subclass (Ability, Aspects, Fragments)
07:23 - Weapons
08:38 - Mods and Stats
09:36 - Gameplay Loop
10:28 - Restoration and Woven Mail Looping
12:14 - Reading Enemies
13:20 - Weaknesses

Music: Pufino - Enjoy

[selFu]

Corrections and further notes will be made/added here:

Bungie's planning to give Stasis some love in Season 23, we'll see how that goes.

Woven Mail's damage resistance is reduced by 5%. Instead of a 60% D.R., it's 55%. This will slightly affect the damage resistance with combine with other resistance sources, but nothing significant.

[xAkiricx]

I’m so happy berserker titan is a great melee based class now. I mean it was good before but stronghold and syntho with war banner is beyond beautiful and I’m enjoying both so much

[Darkniro]

I'd like to thank your old Stronghold Behemoth build for showing me the way of the sword back when I started playing. It has been my favourite playstyle ever since. One of my options for enemies at a distance has been The Supremacy with enhanced kinetic tremors since it allows you to take down or weaken one ranged enemy at a time like servitors or shreikers. This season might be a blast!

[wood]

Behemoth officially powercrept out of everything

[MavenPhoenix]

Hey SelFu. I did a video on this build the other day, and I shouted you out in it as well. I ended up using a Supremacy with Enhanced Lead From Gold and Enhanced Kinetic Tremors to give this build something for the range problem. If you run a heavy ammo finder, it gives you a lot of Supremacy ammo. Allows you to run double special.

[VRGUILE]

I've been using my own variant of this build for a bit now and what I've come to learn is that in a team scenario (NF, dungeon raid etc...) is that this build is perfect for playing as a paladin style tank i.e. playing selflessly and pull aggro by keeping your guard up at all times and getting right up in enemies faces, forcing them to look at only you and (usually) lock them in a melee cycle. Doing so can effectively take a boss or any priority target (champions etc...) out of the picture, giving your team mates an easier time to kill the enemy since they are not being shot at.

Of course, the obvious downside for such a strat is that your personal damage is practically zero since your purpose is to pull aggro and nothing else (but it does come with the upside of your sword ammo economy being amazing since your fighting very little). Team placement is also very important: If you're the one pulling aggro, you HAVE to be the closest to the target and everyone else need to stay well away (and even out of the line of sight) otherwise they may pull aggro away from you (this can be a small issue in random teams but I've noticed that once randos clock onto what you're actually doing, they fall in line and understand to attack at a distance). Lastly, you're back is your main weakspot: if you're tanking a boss in front of you but pull aggro for ads directly behind you, those ads will do more damage since the swords guard doesn't extend all the way behind you. Always try to position yourself so that all enemies you intend to pull are infront of you (you can put your back up against a wall or pillar to help with this).

This type of usage of the build will not be for everyone (its not flashy, nor do you get the satisfaction of dealing big dps) but it is an extremely useful strat that takes full advantage of the new changes and fulfills the power fantasy of being an mmo style tank. it even works in master difficulty content (will check in GMs when they're available).

[AndrewOnYoutube]

I love Banner of War because it gives Strand Titan built in health regen.

[radtacular]

I really appreciate the deep dive and thorough analysis.

[TheFightingLion]

Thanks, selfu. I love your builds and take on non meta pve options. Nothing feels better than hearing the surprise in my friends voices about my builds

[duotwix]

I love your videos. Strongholds are actually so much fun. It's a shame that there aren't that many useful swords if we compare them to the Lament. I have been using the strand one from last season and it's pretty good in some situations thanks to the AOI. Maybe a more in-depth look at all the swords could be a cool idea for your channel.

[Truthful]

For anyone who might still want to run this build with double special: consider your other weapons carefully. The main thing I can recommend is to try matching the elements of your sword and energy weapon so that your Siphons and Scavengers can do double duty in the new ammo economy, it's helped me a lot by letting me do stuff like put on an ammo finder mod to help with sustaining ammo over longer missions. Explosive Personality and Ikelos sniper rifles are both great old craftable options to pair with Lament, but I'm sure there's plenty more random drop weapons that you could get mileage out of.

[B_a_r_b_u_t_o]

So much of the community missing out on the goat creator of build videos

[guber]

Banner of war also works with glaives melee, which I believe gets the same buff as it gives to your normal melees and not just the 10% that swords get. This makes it a great choice for another way to give yourself protection outside of your sword, and can deal with some medium and smaller targets while maintaining the block.

[GG-wkuz]

IMHO, this video needs an update for The Final Shape. There is a lot of content this season that will definitely challenge a guardian's mettle. As a Lament aficionado, I was worried about the nerf. But, as per Bungo's MO, there was a reason behind this, or I should say FIVE reasons contained w/in this season's artifact.

Overlord Sword (speaks for itself)

Press the Advantage - increased sword guard resistance when breaking shields

Blade Stamina - godly in higher-tier PvE activities

Argent Blade - bonus sword dmg/charge rate using armor charges

Shieldcrush - woven mail grants faster melee recharge/dmg

I know Prismatic is the new "thing" but I've felt it to be underwhelming at times (jack-of-all-trades master of none, if you will). This strand build coupled w/ the Hunter's Journal Artifact will have you CRAVING for a room full of baddies to show off the business-end of your sweet strand sword build of indiscriminate justice!

[gibster]

I don't mind Black Talon. They really helped it's ammo economy a while back. It's super niche though but those gd sheikers are everywhere in the seasonal activity.

[WGG-]

The way damage resist stacks is exactly why I have had to argue with people why the stasis overshield change hurt so bad, it is good but health is far better than damage resistance as at higher values it is negligible and considering icefall mantle now has a 50hp base shield it got hit absurdly hard when before you would feel damn near indestructible.

[johndo]

Glad to have you back man I hope life at home is well.

[WLDTYL]

Been looking for your video Mate! I knew you'd make one with how broken these Titan sword builds are.

[pvwetten]

I really like this build. The ammo economy is the weakness after the double special nerf. I found myself monitoring the ammo all the time and switching guns all the time just to keep ammo in the Lament

[dio]

I've been messing around with a similar build since the beginning of the season and the main issue is the ammo economy, the removal of the double special ammo trick is very noticeable for a build like this. The other issue is that there are enemies in the game that you simply cannot use your sword against and you end up having to use your other weapons, and the moment you do the build just completely shuts off since you're not using your sword at that point.

I normally end up having to keep at least 1 sword ammo just so i can block or else i'm in huge trouble, this is from an endgame standpoint mind you, any regular content you can breeze with this.

I'll be dropping Stronghold for ACD/0 Feedback once i get my hands on that new sword with Destabilizing Rounds/Repulsor Brace, that way i'll be able to get infinite Armor Charge stacks and spend them on both Grenade Kickstart to suspend spam enemies with shackle nades, and special finisher in order to use double specials again. Stronghold blocking is overkill, with this build i'll have Woven Mail (55%) Void Overshield (50%) and 100 resil (30%) which is already a 95% damage reduction, without even taking into account blocking with the sword.